


The Hanami Party

by mixthealphabet



Series: And It Grows [7]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M, Fluff, kind of mature
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-01
Updated: 2013-07-01
Packaged: 2017-12-16 19:28:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/865734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mixthealphabet/pseuds/mixthealphabet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As smart as Lucy Heartfilia could be, she was also quite clueless. And, apparently, a bit perverted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hanami Party

_We can sing right along with the thunder, we can be who we wanna be, and we'll never have to worry or wonder. The only thing we gotta believe is that we can't stop now or we're never gonna see everything you want and everything you need. We'll live while we're young and we'll do it 'cuz we're wild and free._

"Natsu, will you stop with the twirling?"

The girl asked, laughing. Blonde strands flew around her face as she moved, being propelled by her partner's arms as the boy tried to mimic whatever dance Mirajane and Laxus were attempting to teach the crowd at the moment.

"But it's fun, Luce!"

In between spins, she could see his expression, the childish grin that took Natsu's face, and she couldn't help but share his joy.

Few were the times when the entire guild was able to gather and relax for a day, without the threat of some enemy or the anxiety that the absence of a friend brought. As mages, every mission could mean a danger too great to be outdone. On those days, fear and death were always there, hidden somewhere in their minds, as if fate itself was trying to tell them to beware.

But not today.

Today the rainbow sakuras were blooming and everyone was safe.

The Hanami Party got bigger every year, or that's what Mirajane Strauss had told Lucy earlier that day, while the two girls weaved flower crowns for their friends. Tourists were attracted to Magnolia by the event and it was their responsibility to make sure everything went as planned, because it helped maintain the natives' approval of Fairy Tail.

Lucy had seen the flowers before; only once, on her first year as a guild member. Her life had always been hurried, but the last few years were filled with an amount of drama that only served to make the girl enjoy even more these little moments of calmness. After so long in Magnolia, she was especially happy to finally join the festival.

The dancing was unexpected, but interesting.

Lisanna had gone around pairing people up, bribing and blackmailing members into the activity. She was obviously taking advantage of her role as coordinator to boss the others around, but nobody seemed to mind all that much. Spring had finally come, the sky was clear and the sakuras were beautiful; how could they find it in themselves to be grouchy?

At first, dancing with Natsu had bothered Lucy. The proximity was unnerving and he obviously wasn't quite sure of his movements, stepping over the tip of her boots every now and then, but the sway of the music had, eventually, soothed them into a rhythm that worked for both.

Until the song changed, of course, and she was suddenly being rotated around the grass, breathless with all the twists and tugs that Natsu insisted on doing. He had a unique way to move, not really caring about how ridiculous they might look.

The dragon slayer embraced her from behind, spinning in a way that made her feet fly off the ground.

"Natsu!" She called out, trying and failing to disguise the joy in her voice.

When he let her down, they continued on the same position, her head resting against his shoulder.

"I'm so glad we could come." He muttered against her hair. "It's been so long since we did something just for the fun of it."

Lucy smiled, closing her eyes and humming back an agreement.

"You look peaceful." Natsu pointed out, grinning like the fool he usually was.

"I  _feel_  peaceful." She replied, tilting her head just enough to see his eyes. They were focused on her face, warm and relaxed, but more serious than she was accustomed. It did strange things to her insides, making her stomach turn and heat rush up to her cheeks.

The girl cleared her throat to disguise her embarrassment, lowering her head so that she was staring at their shoes.

"You're acting weird again, guys." Happy exclaimed, appearing from the crowd of civilians that still tried to emulate Mira's dance.

Behind her, Natsu merely laughed, keeping his grip on her as Lucy reached out to hit the exceed.

"What are you saying, you meddling cat?!" She grumbled under her breath, glaring at the animal. Oblivious to her irritation, he flew around the two partners, commenting on what he'd seen of the party so far.

"Gajeel is being scary. He swatted me away when I went to talk to Lily! Just because we were playing!"

This seemed to get Natsu's attention, for the boy leaned closer to Lucy, resting his head on her shoulder.

"I told ya to be discreet when pranking the metallic idiot." He moved a bit, using the girl's body to hide himself. "Nin-nin!"

This earned them laughter from Lucy, her hands covering Natsu's over her stomach.

"You are absurd, sometimes." She taunted.

The dragon slayer pouted, nuzzling the back of her neck as she continued to laugh.

"Yeah, and you are weird." He countered, smiling and pulling her body to his, lightly tickling her sides.

This sort of scene had started to happen more and more since Natsu first moved in. They were so used to each other that the little touches and the intimacy that came with sharing an apartment didn't seem like much. They had always been close, so what was the matter with some hugs?

It didn't even occur to them how it might look for outsiders.

Lucy, somewhere in her overactive mind, knew that they shouldn't be so comfortable around each other. It wasn't normal for best friends to share a bed, nor for them to be so… touchy. But Natsu was Natsu. He obviously had no idea that his actions could be considered romantic advances. As long as she reminded herself of that, everything would be ok, because she wouldn't let herself fall for him.

The fact that she had to keep that in mind, however, should have been a wakeup call to the fact that, maybe, it was already too late.

As smart as Lucy Heartfilia could be, she was also quite clueless.

"You liiike each other!" Happy chanted, before running off to protect himself from Lucy's exasperation.

Still, his actions had attracted attention to the pair and that was the moment that Gray Fullbuster and Erza Scarlet chose to appear.

"The two of you  _have_  been awfully close these last few weeks." The exquip mage's statement was what finally made the two partners pull apart, stuttering and blushing. The woman didn't seem to notice, because she continued to eat her cake, eyes darting around the festival, taking in the people that danced and talked.

By her side, Gray rolled his eyes.

"You were actually dancing, flame brain? That's almost worse than what you did that first time." He turned to Erza. "Do you remember? He uprooted one of the rainbow sakura trees."

The embarrassment in Natsu's face quickly turned to anger and the boy moved forward, taking hold of the collar of Gray's shirt.

"Are you trying to get my fist in your face, pantless?"

Alerted by the insult, the dark haired boy looked down to realize that he had indeed lost his pants somewhere around the festival. He muttered a "What the hell?!" while looking around, but didn't let that stop him from grabbing Natsu's scarf in an aggressive manner.

Watching the scene, Lucy sighed, but said nothing, for she was still recovering from the redness that covered her cheeks.

"Are the two of you fighting?" Asked Erza. Her tone carried an underlying threat, even though she hadn't even looked up from her slice of cake, and the two rivals immediately let go of each other, smiling as if nothing had happened. "Natsu, I was actually looking for you. Master wanted your help with the barbecue."

Tuning out their conversation, Gray approached Lucy, smirking at her in a way that made the girl feel suspicious.

"What do you want?" She questioned, grabbing something from her bag and offering it to him. "And put these on, there are children in here."

The boy accepted the spare set of pants.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I really hadn't noticed." He grinned sheepishly, before continuing. "And I don't want anything. I was just wondering when you would finally tell ash-for-brains over there that you want to kiss  _his_  pants off."

His nonchalant way of saying such things had always irritated Lucy, but never more than at this moment. She punched his arm, making sure to actually hurt him for once.

"He is right there! Will you stop with these stupid provocations?!" Her words didn't seem to have much of an effect, because the boy snickered, massaging his arm.

"Like he would mind." Gray countered, lifting an eyebrow at her.

"Like he would understand." Lucy laughed bitterly, crossing her arms over her chest and glancing at the pink haired boy.

The ice-make mage shook his head.

"Natsu may be an idiot, but he is still a guy. Do you really think he never considered sex?" He ran a hand through his hair, smirking once again. "No, scratch that. Do you really think he never considered sex  _with you_?" The scandalized look on her face made him laugh. "Seriously, I'm one hundred per cent certain that he has."

For a moment, Lucy wasn't sure what to answer to that. It wasn't like she wanted Natsu to go around fantasizing about her, but she couldn't deny that the idea of him finding her attractive was… interesting. She had found herself thinking about him sexually more than once, especially since he started to go around her apartment half naked. And they were young adults, after all.

"I don't need this right now, Gray." She replied, palming her face in distress.

Her friend shrugged.

"I thought he was going to be dense, but you are just plain oblivious, aren't you?"

This time, his teasing was met with an elbow to his ribs, and the boy decided to just let the subject drop.

* * *

"I never thanked you for that day, did I?"

They were lying on the ground by one of the sakura trees. The party had ended an hour before, but the two had decided to sneak out with a bit of the cake and let the cleaning for those who hadn't helped in the setting up of the Hanami Party.

Lucy had her head against his chest, her fingers tracing patterns across his abdomen, as he tried to recount the constellations above. They had spent the last ten minutes like this, with the girl trying to teach Natsu something about the stars.

The dragon slayer had enveloped her with his arms, sharing his warmth when the chill of the night started to become too much for the blonde. She wasn't as scantily dressed as usual, having brought one of his sweaters to keep her from the wind, but nothing beat the heat of his body against hers.

It brought forth sensations that Lucy still tried to deny, like the tingling she felt in her skin at his every touch, or the knot that formed on her throat. They were signs of something that the girl wasn't completely aware yet, something that she preferred to remain unperceptive to.

"What day?" Natsu chuckled. "You're not making sense again, Luce."

She hadn't been making much sense for some time now, had she? It always seemed to go back to this, to the not understanding and not wanting to understand.

It was official, she liked drama much more when it was only in her books.

"I'm talking about the first Hanami Party, when I couldn't come." She smiled, turning in his arms so she could see his expression. "I've always known it had been you and Happy that uprooted the tree. There was no one else crazy enough."

_Nor anyone who cared as much._

For a moment, Natsu looked like he was going to deny everything, and then he sighed and grinned. He was embarrassed, she could tell, but there was something in the lines of his face that didn't look as kid-like as it usually did. In the light of the moon, he looked older, more mature than she'd ever realized him to be.

Gray's words from earlier filled her mind, and Lucy felt her face getting hotter. She was no stranger to sexual themes, but all her knowledge came from books, not experience. The idea that Natsu saw her as a woman also rose the notion that, if she wanted, she could try something with him and he wouldn't reject her.

_What am I thinking?!_ , she questioned herself.

However, curiosity had awakened within her, along with a heat that had more to do with the feel of Natsu's body against hers than with its warmth.

"We just wanted to make you feel better." The boy explained, propping himself up with an elbow. She followed his movement, tangling her legs with his and bringing the hand that had been tracing his chest up to his nape, where she started to play with strands of his hair.

"I figured." Her reply came a moment later, breathless, after noticing she'd been staring at him.

The dragon slayer groaned, closing his eyes, when she made a certain motion in his hair. The sound made her tremble, as she felt the muscles of his chest contracting under her body.

_Is he imagining that right now?_

Lucy didn't know what she was about to do. She felt nervous, but in a good way, slowly pushing herself up so her lips could reach his.

"Guys?" A voice shouted from somewhere near. "Natsu? Lucy? We're going back to the guild!"

It was Gray.

His call snapped the celestial mage out of her distraction, making her freeze, before pulling away from the boy. Natsu opened his eyes lazily, staring into her brown ones with an emotion that Lucy couldn't determine.

"We should probably go." She murmured, blinking and lowering her gaze to her hands.

"Yeah." His voice was hoarse and he licked his lips, but made no move to get up.

"Flame head, where the fuck are you?" Gray was nearer, and clearly annoyed.

Struggling a bit, the blonde stood up. She could feel the blush that still tinted her complexion, but she smiled nonetheless, suddenly very satisfied with herself and with the reaction she had achieved from Natsu.

She turned to him, disguising her mirth as well as she could.

"Let's go home."

**Author's Note:**

> So... I'm not sure what inspired this. I just felt like mixing fluff and something more mature.  
> The song is Wild & Free, by A Rocket to the Moon.


End file.
